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Thursday, May 28, 2015

JUST A LAD. George W. Martin was just 13 years old when he joined the 10th Vermont Infantry Regiment in 1862. A large boy he misrepresented himself as 18 or 19. He fought with the regiment and was wounded at the Battle of Cold Harbor. When he died in Haverhill in 1935 he was the last of the 102 members of the Bradford GAR post. (Bradford Historical Society)

Members of Bradford's Washington Post #17 of the Grand Army of the Republic and members of the Women's Relief Corps are pictured at a reunion at Lake Morey about 1895. (Bradford Historical Society)

Register for GAR post in Wells River (photo Michelle Sherburne)

Published in the Journal Opinion, May 20, 2015

“Mustered out!And what then?Are these tattered and dusty warriors only to
receive as their recompense the homage of admiring crowds who assembly to
witness and welcome their return?”

The Caledonian, July
14, 1865

The Civil War came to
an end with the Confederate surrender in April 1865. Despite the grief
resulting from the assassination of President Lincoln, communities throughout
Vermont and New Hampshire resounded with celebration. By the end of the year
most regiments from the two states were mustered out and soldiers returned
home.

This was the bloodiest
of America’s wars. For the millions of Americans who were affected by it, the
war was often unending. This column deals with Vermont and New Hampshire
veterans’ attempts to return, with varying degrees of success, to civilian
life. It also describes the attempts of the two states to care for veterans and
their families while striving to “bind up the nation’s wounds.”

The Civil War Trust estimates
there were 620,000 casualties from battle wounds, disease and starvation.Of the 31,650 New Hampshire men who served,
4,882 died.Vermont suffered 5,224
deaths from among the 34,238 men involved.It is estimated that for every three soldiers killed in battle, five more
died of disease.

Locally every town
felt the burden of the war. Bradford lists 158 men involved and 30 killed or
wounded: Haverhill 37 out of 150: Topsham 41 out of 142: and Newbury suffered
32 out of 203. Some families sent more than one man into service and the impact
of the losses was widespread.Articles
on five of the significant battles involving local men can be found at
larrycoffin.blogspot.com.

Modern studies
conclude that many of the returning soldiers suffered from “soldier’s heart,” a
form of what is now called post traumatic stress disorder. Civil War combat experiences involved
“intimate violence”, such as hand-to-hand fighting.Soldiers fought side by side with friends and
relatives and often saw them die violent deaths.

Those studies conclude
that these battle experiences led to an epidemic of emotional, psychological
and physical disorders.Unemployment,
alcoholism, drug addiction, suicides and mental disease were evident among
veterans in some areas.

Soldiers returning
home often carried diseases such as typhoid fever or malaria, They contracted
their illnesses during the war, but would remain afflicted for the remainder of their lives. These affects
were evident in both the North and the South, although defeat and destruction
added to the plight of Confederate veterans.

A review of available Vermont
newspapers and town histories from 1865 to 1910 indicates that much of this
suffering was in silence. As with veterans of other wars, many men came home,
put away their uniforms and either never spoke of what they experienced or lied
about what the real conditions had been.

For many it was a
private battle, with men unwilling to admit the need for care. The few that are
mentioned include a local veteran who died in 1866 from chronic diarrhea
resulting from the war, one who was “so badly disabled as to be no use to the
community,” another who was unable to care for himself because of a head injury
or “intermittent fever” and several others who were “just worn out by the war.”

Many veterans returned
home with a limb missing.Some were
fitted with prosthetics such as those invented by B.F. Palmer, who had lost his
leg in a Bradford bark mill accident in 1846.Newspaper reports mention crippled veterans who adapted to their
handicaps and continued to work as
farmers, factory workers, post masters and even as a governor of Vermont.

Many did not return
home because they saw advantages of relocating to other areas of the nation.By 1870, over 42% of native-born Vermonters
were living elsewhere. The author of the Peacham history concluded that the war
“freed men out of their accustomed groove and disinclined many of them to
return to the quiet of a rural village.”New addresses ranged from North Carolina to Nebraska, California and the
Dakotas as well as Boston and Chicago.

Whether at home or
away, many veterans were highly successful in commercial and government
positions.For the next half century,
local and state leaders in every avenue of life counted themselves as veterans
of the conflict.Whether they asked for
it or not, their status aw war veterans was a badge of honor.

Veterans sought solace
in the company of others who understood their traumatic experiences. A number
of veterans’ organizations were established. The ost prominent among them, the
Grand Army of the Republic , was established in 1866 and with over 400,000
members counted posts throughout the North.

New Hampshire had 94 posts, including those in
North Haverhill, Warren and Orfordville.Vermont had 117 including those located in East Corinth, Bradford,
Fairlee, Post Mills and Wells River. As
with posts elsewhere they were named after local military heroes.

State and national
annual encampments were held. Established first for camaraderie, the G.A.R.
took a strong role in promoting pension legislation, founding Soldier’s Homes
and giving assistance to needy veterans, their widows and orphans.Political candidates sought the endorsement
of the group and its support was often instrumental in elections.

The Women’s Relief
Corp, established in 1883, was the auxiliary of the G.A.R.It assisting in support of veterans and
promoting patriotic observances. In 1901 the national headquarters for the
organization was located in Bradford as the national president was a local
resident.

Other veterans’ groups
included the Reunion Society of Vermont and the Orange County Veterans.In later years the Orange County group merged
with the Grafton County Veterans.

Newspaper reports of the Orange County reunion
at Chelsea in September 1884 describe “the grounds for the encampment are very
pleasant…there will be an abundance of tents, and fuel, straw, etc will be
furnished.Each soldier should being his
blanket and rations.” Attendees
gathered around campfires to hear speeches, fire rifles and cannon and sing old
songs while fighting the battles over again. Other encampments were held in more formal
settings.

The New Hampshire
Veteran’s Association held its first encampment in 1875. In 1880 it built a
hall at the Weirs on Lake Winnipesaukee.A number of colorful and ornate regimental buildings or barracks were
added nearby and encampments were held there yearly.

The largest veterans’
reunion was held in 1913 at Gettysburg to observe the 50th
anniversary of the battle.Over 53,000
veterans, primarily Union, spent six days at a gigantic campground.Attempts at camaraderie between former
enemies were partially successful. Extending a hand “across the bloody chasm” was
just too much for some. Twenty-five years later only 1870 veterans, with an average
age 92, attended the 75th anniversary observance.

I shared this history
of veterans’ gatherings with a local Vietnam veteran. He suggested that these
get-togethers represent an earlier version of the support-group therapy now
offered by the Veterans’ Administration. They help veterans feel less isolated
and alone.

Beginning as early as
1870, histories of state regiments were published, written by regimental historians.
In the 1890s both states authorized the publishing of official rosters of their
participating soldiers and sailors.Individual accounts, including diaries and lengthy letters to the
editors of newspapers told of men’s experiences.

In 1891, Lt. Thomas White, formerly of Topsham,
began writing a series for The United Opinion on his experiences with the 10th
Vermont Regiment.Like the regimental
histories, these individual accounts made sure the public remained aware of the
veterans’ services and sacrifices.

Many local communities
erected monuments. In 1912, Haverhill dedicated its Soldiers’ Memorial and in
1917 Lyme did the same. Both monuments feature an infantryman standing at
parade rest, common on monuments across the nation.Fairlee and Bradford established veterans
monuments following the end of World War I.Regimental markers were also placed at battlefields such as Gettysburg
and Antietam.

To meet the need of
aging veterans, Vermont opened its Soldiers’ Home in Bennington in 1887. Within
the first 10 years, the home admitted 286 veterans. The Burlington Weekly Free
Press reported that many destitute veterans did not take advantage of the Vermont
home as “the question of actually leaving their families and going to be cared
for at public expense” was too much of a shame.New Hampshire’s Soldiers’ Home in Tilton
opened in 1890 and within the first two years admitted 143 veterans.

Beginning in 1861, the
Federal government began awarding pensions to disabled veterans and widows and
orphans of the deceased.At first the
benefit for a totally disabled pensioner was $8 a month.Under pressure from veterans groups, pension
laws were repeatedly modified to increase payment rates and make eligibility
easier.

In 1893 it was
reported that there were 9705 pensioners in New Hampshire receiving benefits
and in Vermont there were 10,068. Of course as veterans aged or joined “the
bivouac of the dead,” the number of pensioners changed.

As the public’s
memories of the war were replaced by other concerns, there was some blowback to
the cost of these pensions.In 1894,
these benefits consumed 37% of the federal budget.This, plus veterans preferences in civil
service positions and the failure to provide pensions for Confederate veterans,
caused some push back against veteran benefits nationally.

Between 1865 and 1877,
the Federal government pursued a policy of reconstruction of the former
Confederate states.The controlling
Republican Party was divided on the methods and policies.Bradford’s National Opinion urged caution in
allowing former rebels back into power.

The Republican Party
controlledpolitics in Vermont during
this period.The Democratic Party was
often linked with terms such as traitor and rebel. In 1875 the Bradford Opinion
printed: “A vote for the Democratic ticket was a vote to encourage the rebels
in their purpose to overthrow the government.” The Democrats accused the Republicans of
“waving the bloody shirt” to keep alive memories of Southern treachery.

The difficult task of reconciliation
between the two sections of the nation was not totally successful.It failed to effectively rebuild the South,
integrate the freed slaves into the social order or resolve the bitter feelings
among those who had been affected by the conflict.

In addition to helping veterans and their
families, veterans’ organizations
were dedicated to memorializing their fallen comrades.Within several years of the end of the war,
efforts were made to decorate the graves of their dead. The G.A.R. was
instrumental in creating May 30th of each year as Decoration Day and
establishing it as a holiday in a number of states.

In 1868 Vermont
newspapers described the state’s first observances of Decoration Day. In June
1869, Bradford’s National Opinion published an article from the national G.A.R.
supporting the organization’s refusal to decorate the graves of the Southern
dead.“Our refusal to decorate rebel
graves marks not our hatred of their occupants or friends, but our undying
hostility to the ideas for which they fought and died.”

Known now as Memorial Day, the observance was
made a national holiday in 1971 and moved to the last Monday of May. Memorial Day 2015 was a special one as part
of the Bradford250 observances.

On Sunday, May 24 the Vermont Hemlocks Civil War re-enactors group had an
encampment in Bradford. Folks joined them all day to view their camp and watch
their activities. That evening the members will gather at the Upper Plain
Cemetery to present the stories of Bradford Civil War veterans buried
there.Over 70 residents joined them.

On Monday, May 25 a ceremony was
held on the front lawn of the Bradford Academy to rededicate the Veterans
Memorial monument.A local unit of the
National Guard joined the Hemlocks and local veterans and Scoouts in this
ceremony.An audience of over 150 viewed
the ceremonies.

The ranks of surviving Civil War veterans thinned with the arrival
of the 20th century.One of
the last surviving local veterans was George W. Martin of Bradford and
Haverhill.Martin was just 13 when he
joined the Tenth Vermont Regiment in 1862. He was wounded at Cold Harbor.When he died in 1935 he was the last of 102
members of Bradford’s G.A.R. Washington Post #17. The last Vermont veteran was Gilbert Lucier
who died in 1944 and New Hampshire’s was James Lurvey who died in 1950.

Upon returning home in July 1865 Pvt. Wilbur Fisk of
Tunbridge , a member of the 2nd Vermont Regiment, wrote “If I was asked ‘how it
seemed’ to be a free citizen once more, I should say it seems as if I have been
through a long dark tunnel, and have just got into daylight once more.”For other Vermont and New Hampshire veterans
there was no such release.

In November 1888, the editor of The Burlington Weekly Free Press editor wrote, “Every armless sleeve,
every wooden leg, every scarred and crippled veteran is living proof that war
does not end as the smoke of the last battle floats away.” This is a stark
lesson Americans learned then but must relearns again and again.

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About Me

I am the President of the Bradford Historical Society. I retired after teaching social studies in Bradford for 42 years, beginning at Bradford Academy in 1964 and finishing at Oxbow High School in June 2006. Throughout my teaching career I emphasized local history as a bridge to understanding United States history. This column has been a major activity of my retirement and I thank those who helped me research the topics and edit the writings. The towns covered include Thetford to Ryegate in Vermont and Lyme to Haverhill in New Hampshire. I have sold out of my first book IN TIMES PAST: ESSAYS FROM THE UPPER VALLEY, which raised $5300 for the Bradford Public Library. Book Two is now available by mail for $20, check payable to the Bradford Public Library, sent to Larry Coffin, PO Box 490, Bradford,VT 05033 or purchased at local outlets.